The best athletes in the world earn more than just the best salaries.
Social media-savvy athletes are able to maximize their incomes through endorsements. The best athletes are effectively using their social influence to help develop their personal brands and make big money in the process.
In some cases, the biggest sports stars are able to take home more money from their endorsement deals than they do from their professions.
Ronaldo is certainly the biggest sports star on social media with over 215 million followers across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. He’s also the most valuable with his promoted posts generating $176 million in media value for brands. Lionel Messi and Neymar have the next largest social followings with 131 million and 129 million. Steph Curry’s promoted posts were worth $24 million, which trails only Ronaldo.
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Cristiano Ronaldo
Earns up to $303,900 per post
The Portuguese professional footballer and Real Madrid star has endorsed: watches, underwear, suits, cleats, dress shoes, autos, exercise devices and the list goes on.
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Neymar
Earns up to $143,000 per post
The Brazilian professional footballer has a series of endorsements that brought in millions from brands last year, and it’s no doubt that his nearly 58 million fans helped out.
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LeBron James
Earns up to $126,600 per post
King James is the probably one of the highest-earning athletes when it comes to endorsements. While he earned $23.2 million from salary/winnings he pulled in an additional $54 million in endorsements.
Read more on Forbes
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Wayne Rooney
Earns up to $94,000 per post
The Manchester United and England captain, takes home an additional $5 million in endorsements. His favorite is Nike, like most athletes, but you can also catch him retweeting local businesses in Liverpool.
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Why it works
It’s no secret:
More media coverage = More earnings.
Many athletes (and their managers/agents) earn as social influencers and are looking for the best way to work with just the brands they believe in.
What was once a game of phone tag / email tag (which could take days or months to secure a deal) has evolved into a data driven software experience that algorithmically does the work for you…thus reducing that protracted timeframe to just minutes or seconds.
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What this means for athletes:
Less effort, more reward.
Now, athletes use apps like HOLLYFY to connect them to the types of brands they want to work with.
When a person is able to post about brands they already find interesting and get paid for it, WHY NOT. The days of waiting for the right opportunity to come your way or putting in excess time and effort are so 2010.
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How it works:
Whether you’re a manager, agent or athlete; HOLLYFY brand integration software is easy to use.
1) Setup an account
2) Add listings of the types of brands you want to work with
3) Add your audience stats
4) Get recommendations
Or, if you’re really interested connect directly with brands
Simple as that.
List of top paid athletes:
1. Cristiano Ronaldo
2. Lionel Messi
3. LeBron James
4. Roger Federer
5. Kevin Durant
6. Novak Djokovic
7. Cam Newton
8. Phil Mickelson
9. Jordan Spieth
10. Kobe Bryant
11. Lewis Hamilton
12. Tiger Woods
13. Eli Manning
14. Joe Flacco
15. Tom Brady
16. Floyd Mayweather
17. Rory McIlroy
18. Russell Wislon
19. Sebastian Vettel
20. Phillip Rivers
21. Rafeal Nadal
21. (tie) Neymar
23. Zlatan Ibrahimovic
24. Fenando Alonso
25.Gareth Bale
26. Marcell Dareus
27. Peyton Manning
28. Derrick Rose
29. Kei Nishikori
30. A.J. Green
Read more about World’s Highest paid athletes on Forbes
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